Ibracadabra

Slowly but surely, this is turning into a football blog. I guess I don't really mind it. That's one thing I can watch, think or talk about forever. I am at work and I should be making a control law for my detector model. Instead, I'm still floored from watching FC Internazionale's (better know as Inter Milan) star-studded line up at the Stanford Football Stadium. Well, I'm glad at least Inter's presence managed to convince Stanford to host an actual "football" game at a football stadium.

Skipping mundane details about Silva and Cordoba scoring in the 51st and 60th minutes, Balotelli's show-off skills and 2 unnecessary red cards, I will go to the stimulating aspects of the game. No, no perversion please - respect football.

I have no idea what I was expecting. But its just not normal or natural to see Vieira flick and turn and swivel as he did yesterday or see all 193 cm of Marco Materazzi slide in without any inhibitions and least to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic's nimble footwork and delicate touches.

And then, there's gotta be a reason for calling someone The Special One. Watching Mourinho walk out, waving at times, just as if he was taking a stroll outside his home is an enthralling experience. The guy of many words, many ambitions, many ideas and many honours - yet he's just that man out there.

Somehow, everything that seems Oh-so flashy out there seems much more real (not Real) on the pitch. Of course, the quality is there, the class and the skill are there to see. But its just 11 players taking on 11 others, all of whom love the game more than anything else.

The stretching exercises on the sidelines was the closest I got to the players... not quite, my arm brushed a certain Zlatan's on his way out to the pitch.

To the point of being unnecessarily modest, maybe not so much for people at Stanford or even in the US who are used to seeing superstars. But watching my first professional game with Inter Milan as one of the sides will certainly be an experience to savour!